9 week marathon plan – week 3

Week 3. One third of the way through training and my get quick quick scheme is going okay.

I’ve had a lot of pain from my calves throughout this week and so have wanted to cut down the mileage slightly whilst still increasing my long run distance. I’m still of the opinion that I’m better off running the long runs at a decent pace and not worrying about short, faster runs during the week so much. I’m still doing spinning twice a week because it gets the heart rate high and is low impact, so I can do that twice a week and replace two runs. It’s not ideal, but given the short time I’ve got it seems to be the best option to help avoid injury. I had a massage on Tuesday which did seem to help slightly, but not significantly.

I’d originally wanted to do this week’s long run on Saturday – primarily so that I could drink on Saturday night and not worry about it on Sunday. But then, on Thursday, Saint Louis delivered the most snow I’ve ever seen fall in the space of two hours and by Saturday the temperature hadn’t yet risen above freezing – so there was ice all over the place. Therefore I decided that to run on Sunday would be the most sensible option.

The long run went well; much easier than last week. I did 30km and enjoyed running through the park whilst it was covered in snow. By the end my calves were giving me complete agony and I did swear out loud a few times, some of the locals didn’t look overly impressed – they were probably on their way back from church. That devil hey? It’s hard to keep him out when you’re completely knackered, he’s a ruddy idiot. At the end I lay down in the snow to cool my calves down, it felt great.

This week calls for more of the same with another 30-32km run at the end of the week. I’m ahead of schedule and feeling good right now. Full details of the week are below: